4 Cheaper Ways to Stay Warm When You’re Renting

Winter has well and truly settled over Australia, with some cities experiencing their coldest weather of the year, and it’s showing no signs of easing up. This time of year can be particularly difficult for renters in Australia, who often have no control over things like installing heating or bolstering insulation. With that in mind, we’ve pulled together a few tips that should help renters keep warm over winter.

How to stay warm in cold Aussie weather

Seal any cracks or gaps

It may seem obvious, but if your home has any cracks or gaps in its infrastructure, that’s an easy way for hot air to escape and allow a cold draught in. Check permissions with your landlord, but using a silicon gap filler is a simple way for anyone to quickly and efficiently plug any small holes that commonly occur around windows or doors. Using a door snake or seal is another efficient way to counter airflow under doors.

In addition to that, closing doors to rooms like your bathroom or laundry when not in use can be helpful, particularly if these rooms contain exhaust fans. In fact, keeping the door closed to any room when not using it is an effective way to contain the heat in the rooms you are in.

Fight cold weather with thermal curtains

Thermal curtains are a reasonably cheap and easy way to keep the warmth within your house. These curtains use multiple layers of insulated material to create a boundary between the outside air and your living space – although you’ll need to keep them closed for them to work. Spotlight sells styles starting from $23.

If your home doesn’t have curtain rails you’ll need to ask permission from your landlord to install them. But otherwise, it’s easy to swap out pre-existing curtains for thermal ones, as long as you remember to swap them back after your tenancy is over.

Pick a cost-effective heater

A heating appliance is the most obvious way of keeping your home warm in cold weather, but with energy bills so high lately, it’s important to pick an energy-efficient option. We’ve investigated this previously and found that panel heaters are generally the most energy-efficient to run, but you also need to consider the size of the space you’re heating.

You should also remember to clean the filters on your heaters regularly so that they continue to run efficiently and keep heating temperatures between 18-20°C.

Prioritise warming your hands and feet in cold weather

It’s common knowledge that due to the way our our hands and feet are structured (with less muscle) they’re much more prone to colder temperatures. Therefore, it’s important to keep them warm. You can do this easily by layering up with socks, slippers and gloves, or there are even more creative ways, like using a heated foot warmer or holding a warm beverage between your hands.

It’s not the same as installing heated floors or central heating, but in these economic times, we renters have to do everything we can to stay warm. Hopefully, some of these tips help you with that!

Lead Image Credit: Disney